Heaven On Earth: Part One

The death of John II was greatly mourned throughout the Empire. His reign of peace and prosperity was greatly appreciated by the Orthodox populace and he is one of the most celebrated Emperors ever. His successor was Manuel I Komnenos. Manuel was the favorite son of John II and therefore, the army proclaimed him as Emperor. And so, with military backing, the fourth son of John II was crowned Emperor in Aghia Sofia in 1159.


Manuel I was a strong-willed man, ready to defend his Empire to the death. He was primarily a general, rather than a politically-minded Emperor. He would rather spend his days hunting or leading armies to crush rebels than in a lavish palace. He never got a chance to show his military prowess in the early years of his reign. From 1159 to 1168, the Empire repeated the same quiet that was present during John II’s reign.

However, across the Adriatic Sea, two newly emerging empires were about to challenge Orthodoxy. The Papacy, under Alexander III, soon to be known as “the Warrior,” had made an alliance with Lotharingia to reestablish Catholic power in the East. The first step of this was to take back southern Italy from the Orthodox. So, in 1169, with Lotharingia backing and troops, Alexander III sent his generals and their armies into Orthodox Italy, starting the Papal-Orthodox War.


Europe was once again shocked at the actions of their Pope, but Alexander III, like Eugene III before him, fabricated claims of Satanism and heresy against Manuel I and this quelled those who protested the militant Pope’s actions. Emperor Manuel I would need to be very careful in every move he made against the Papacy. If he were to lose control of his men and allow any unusually large massacre of Papal troops, the counterattacks by the Catholic world would be devastating.

Thankfully, however, Orthodoxy had more than enough money to bribe the rulers of Europe. So Manuel I sent out as many diplomats as possible to quiet the leaders of Europe. Throughout the weeks after the Papacy invaded Orthodox Italy, every Orthodox diplomat was in every Catholic court offering large sums of money and rights to trade with the East, as long as those nations stayed out of the war.

While the bribing of Europe did take a chunk out of the Orthodox treasury, the ends justified the means and Western Europe decided to stay out of the war. Nevertheless, war with the Lotharingian and Papal Empires was unavoidable. So in the summer of 1169, an army of 30,000 Papal troops commanded by a Lotharingian general showed up at the gates of Naples and opened fire with their catapults. The war for Italy had started.

The Papal-Orthodox War is sometimes called the “War of Stone,” in reference to the many sieges that took place during the war, the “stone” referring to city walls. The first of these sieges was the Siege of Naples. The Empire had been caught completely off guard by the Papal declaration of war. No one expected the Pope to declare war on the Empire. Surely that would mean his doom. But with the backing of the Lotharingian Empire and army, Alexander III actually stood a chance against the Orthodox Empire.

The surprise of the war caught the Empire off guard, and as a result, the total number of forces in the city of Naples numbered 5,000, against the Papal forces of 30,000. The date was June 30th 1169 when the Papal army laid siege upon the city of Naples. Naples was a rather well-defended city. Its Orthodox-built walls were almost as high as the walls of Constantinople itself. However, in peace time, the city wasn’t well-garrisoned. Therefore, the walls could not be fully manned.

Throughout the entire 24 hours of June 30th, the Papal trebuchets fired constantly on the city. It seemed they never ran out of rocks to fire. It was evident that Alexander III had planned this war for years. The people of Naples received no sleep that day. The constant bombardment demoralized and exhausted the soldiers and populace. The siege continued for the next month. Then the Lotharingian general made a daring move. He sent 3,000 men to the other side of the city and concentrated all his siege weapons on the opposite side. The catapults fired upon one side of the city as a distraction while the 3,000 men on the other side of the city used a battering ram to open the gates.

The smaller group went unnoticed and they broke open the gate and rushed into the city. Faced with flaming rocks on one side and 3,000 men on the other, the Imperial troops were trapped. Eventually, the walls of Naples were destroyed and the other Papal troops rushed forth and massacred the Imperial defenders. A shock went throughout the Empire, Naples was in Papal hands! Even more astonishing was the fact that the Pope visited Naples the next day and observed the damage. He gave a speech condemning all Orthodoxy and encouraging Catholics in the Orthodox Empire to rebel. He even made all the Orthodox citizens of Naples stand and listen to a speech of why they were “heretics” and why they should convert to the Roman church.


Immediately after this shocking defeat, the Empire sent ships and reinforcements across the Adriatic Sea to Italy. But another shocking revelation was revealed; the Lotharingian Empire had ships in the Adriatic Sea. Once again completely caught off guard, the Orthodox ships were sunk and the thousands of reinforcements drowned. Only a few Orthodox troops were able to return home from the disaster in the Adriatic.

Over the next couple of months, the Papal army was reinforced to a massive number of 50,000 while they conquered all of southern Italy. Constantly, Manuel I sent in more ships and reinforcements to try and help their Italian brethren, but each wave was defeated and sunk by the massive Lotharingian fleet. For the first time in a hundred years, the Empire had been brutally defeated and southern Italy lay in the hands of the Papacy. There was nothing Manuel I could do against the onslaught of Papal troops and Lotharingian fleets. Alexander III shocked the world even more by making Italian Orthodox lords bow before him, in his lavish field tents. By the time the year 1170 was beginning, 50,000 Papal troops were looking across the Strait of Messina towards Sicily and its fortresses.

The early months of 1170 saw naval skirmishes all across the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. Both the Lotharingian and Papal navies successfully defended the Italian coast from Orthodox counter-attacks, much to the dismay of Manuel I. As in the previous year, every wave of ships sent by the Emperor were destroyed until Manuel I accepted the fact that he could not break the power of the Catholic fleets.

He decided to try a different route and reinforce Sicily through Libya. In February and March of 1170, 15,000 Orthodox troops were frantically marching along the Libyan coast, trying to reach the secret harbor that housed ships from Malta. But somehow, probably due to a traitor, Lotharingia knew of this plan and sent 20,000 troops to North Africa to crush the Orthodox troops there.


Along with the Lotharingian army, the Lotharingians also sent a fleet to Malta to blockade it, allowing no ships in or out. The fleet that was supposed to pick up and transport the African Orthodox army to Italy was trapped on Malta. And since no news could go in or out of the island, the reason why no ships ever picked up the Orthodox army remained a mystery to Manuel I and his court.

This blockade gave the Lotharingian army time to locate and engage the Orthodox army. The two armies engaged at the Battle of Sabratha. In the hot desert heat, the armies smashed into each other in a brutal fray. Both armies were equipped with near identical arms and armor. Both sides were exhausted by the desert heat. And both sides had equally competent generals. Both sides were equal in all areas except for one, numbers. And it for this one reason that the Lotharingians won the day. However, for both sides, the battle was a slaughter that killed over 10,000 men on both sides.

This left Sicily abandoned and hopeless once and for all. The navies of the Orthodox Empire were humiliated and could not reach the island. And the armies of the Orthodox Empire could only wait in their outposts while their brethren were killed in Libya and Italy. The whole situation was humiliating. And army with the power to mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops could only wait and watch it’s Italian provinces conquered, all because the Empire’s navy had been neglected for a hundred years. The only hope the Orthodox Empire had for Sicily was the great fortress of Palermo.


It was second only to Constantinople in it’s defenses and height. The massive defenses that surrounded the city of Palermo were it’s only saving grace. The spring of 1170 brought 50,000 Papal troops to the walls of Palermo. The castle was defended by 7,000 troops. Immediately, Papal troops laid siege on the city. No offer for a peaceful surrender was made, the Orthodox troops were prepared to fight to the death.

Heavy stones of fire rained down on the walls of Palermo. So many catapults were firing on the outer walls that they were left defenseless. Instead, the Imperial troops stayed within the second layer of walls. Once the outer walls were broken down, the Papal troops moved into the city and brought their siege weapons within firing range of the second walls. It was here that the fighting intensified.


Flaming arrows from the Orthodox side were fired upon the Papal siege weapons. Many catapults and battering rams were set on fire by the arrows, much to the dismay of the Catholic generals. By mid-afternoon, the Papal troops resorted to using their ladders to scale the second walls. Sheer numbers won out and the walls were taken by the Papal army.

But still, the Orthodox troops fought on against every cavalry charge, every foot soldiers, every arrow, of the Papal army. Such heroics hadn’t been seen for a long time. By the sunset, the remaining Imperial soldiers had retreated into the main, central castle. The castle was battered by the few remaining Papal siege engines all throughout the night. Finally, in the early morning of April 29th 1170, as the sun rose, the Orthodox troops charged out of the castle gates and killed as many Latin troops as they could.

By the time the sun was fully in the sky, all the Orthodox men and women of Palermo were dead. Sicily was in the hands of the Papacy. Manuel I had failed. The next move the Papal-Lotharingian alliance made was to invade Epirus. But the mere sight of Catholic ships near the Greek coast was too much and Manuel I signed for peace, giving all of Italy, Sicily, and Malta to the Papal Empire. The once invincible Orthodox Empire had been humiliated and greatly humbled. Over 40,000 Orthodox had been killed, along with 20,000 Catholics. The “War of Stone” showed that naval power was still important in the Middle Ages, and land power was not everything.

Saint FYROM, Patron of Macedonians and Former Republics

The Glorification Of FYROM​

Welcome once again! This time around, we are glorifying one of my favorite new writers, FYROM!

1. First of all, congrats! Now, tell us a little bit about yourself:
I'm a senior at the Georgia Institute of Technology, one year away from completing my BS in Aerospace Engineering. I grew up in the Army and spent a lot of time living in Germany at Heidelberg and Vilseck, where I developed an appreciation for history while traveling across Europe. My interests include science fiction, early modern history, the East Front of World War II, and enjoying fine beer. Despite taking five years of French in high school, I can barely order a meal.

2. What is the origin of your username?
Well, back in high school I was in my school’s Model United Nations team, and every year we’d go attend the International MUN conference at The Hague. So one year I was selected to be the ambassador for our delegation, and we were to represent the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or FYROM. That year the conference opened a new forum on their website, so whenever I posted on there I’d sign myself as FYROM. When I went on to other forums and online gaming, I found that it was a pretty easy name for people to read and remember, and 99% of the time it wasn’t taken.

3. How did you discover the great games of Paradox?
Actually, one of my team-mates on my high school MUN team told me about a game he was playing, where he was the Byzantine Empire and the Catholics kept ganging up on him. He said it was called Europa something or other, and I quickly forgot about it. Flash-forward to high school, and I was looking through some online bargains and saw Europa Universalis II on sale for $15, and remembered my friend’s comments. I went ahead and ordered it, and immediately fell in love with the game. I went ahead and recommended it to some of my friends, and a few of them became EU addicts as well.

4. How did you come to the forums?
Honestly have no idea. I’ve lurked on the forums for about three years, since I started playing EU2. I think I first started looking around for mods, and after finding the AGCEEP I would check in every few months to see if there were new updates.

5. Do you remember you first experience here?
Probably asking a newbie question that’s been asked a million times . I do remember being baffled by the lack of a forum search function, though.

6. Your “Greater Netherlands” AAR has developed quite a following and is well-deserving of it, are you surprised that your first AAR is so successful?
I was pretty surprised, I had really only intended to write up to the end of the Lotharingian War with Burgundy. After managing to beat them by the skin of my teeth, I had to go and rant about it to my friend Antimatter on IM, and he suggested I write an AAR about it. After getting a lot of compliments on it, I decided to take it further and see where it went.

7. What parts of the AAR did you enjoy writing about the most?
The whole thing has been fun so far, but I still liked the Lotharingian War the best.

8. Who are your influences when it comes to AAR-writing?
I read quite a bit, especially books on history. I’m currently in the middle of Diarmaid MacCulloch’s The Reformation, which has been a big influence on my writing about the rise of Protestantism in my AAR. Other books I’ve used as reference are C. V. Wedgewood’s The Thirty Years War and Martin van Creveld’s Supplying War. Because I’ve read a lot of history books, I decided to start out in a history book style, although in the future I’m going to try and branch out a bit.

9. Do you have any advice for other AAR writers?
I’m an engineer that doesn’t get to write much, so I don’t know if I’m the best person to give writing advice . I will say that having your first post as a Mission Statement and Table of Contents goes a long way towards getting people to read your AAR. If someone comes across it midway, they don’t want to have to scroll through every page to find your posts.

10. Do you have any favorite AARs out there?
I’ve been following both of EUROO7’s hilarious AARs, Bavaria and the Papal States. I’m also in awe of some of the established AARs, like RGB’s Rus to Russia Megacampaign and canonized’s Timelines. I’ve been slowly making my way through them, and I’m interested in checking out some HoI AARs.

11. What do you like most about AARs and writing them?
Its definitely improved my enjoyment of the game, although it does take me ten times longer to move forward. Usually I’d hit a status quo in the mid 1600s, and never get any further than that out of boredom. However, now that I’m actually roleplaying the country for the narrative’s sake, I have more reason to take risks or make sudden policy changes. Its certainly kept things interesting.

12. Do you have any favorite experiences on the forums?
So far, writing this AAR, but I look forward to further involvement on the forums .



Again, let us all congratulate our newest AARland saint, FYROM!



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